W6OP Amateur Radiohttps://w6op.com
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1https://w6op.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-IMG_3229-1-32x32.jpgW6OP Amateur Radiohttps://w6op.com
323274692164SDR Voice Keyer for Machttps://w6op.com/2019/sdr-voice-keyer-for-mac/
https://w6op.com/2019/sdr-voice-keyer-for-mac/#commentsSat, 19 Jan 2019 20:27:17 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=796 Radio -> TX DAX .
Click the button you want or on the keyboard use ⌘1…⌘0 for buttons 1 - 10 (if the SDR Voice Keyer has focus). The radio will be keyed and the audio transmitted. The Stop button or Esc will immediately stop any current transmission. You can adjust the Transmit Gain if necessary using the slider.
If you want to be reminded when to send your ID, check the ID Timer checkbox and a green flashing graphic will appear in front of the Send button. Click the Send button (or ⌘S) and your ID file will be sent.
Touch bar support is included if you have one of the newer MacBook Pro's with a Touch Bar.]]>Update February 13, 2019 – Version 2 released.

A voice keyer for the Apple Mac is now available for download. The SDR Voice Keyer can run on the Mac with dogparkSDR or FlexRadio SmartSDR running in a virtual PC or even on another Mac or Microsoft Windows PC on the same network. You do not need xDax or xCat as SDR Voice Keyer handles all audio and control functions on its own.

History

As a Mac user I wanted to use as little of the Microsoft Windows operating system as I could. However, since FlexRadio SmartSDR only runs on Windows I had to have a virtual PC running in VMWare Fusion on my Mac. Trying to be fully Mac centric I purchased a copy of Dog Park Software dogparkSDR, a FlexRadio 6xxx client for the Mac, but some other radio applications were either not available on the Mac or difficult to use.

As a retired MS Windows programmer who did not own a Windows PC, I always did my development work in Virtual PCs, I decided it was a good time to learn to program on the Mac and write some utilities that were needed. I originally was going to write a DAX equivalent and started porting Stu Philips K6TU Objective C SmartSDR API to Swift. Part way through this effort I ran across Doug K3TZR and Mario DL3LSM. Doug had already written a port in Swift and Mario was finishing up xDax and xCat using Doug’s xLib6000 SmartSDR API port. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel I decided to develop a voice keyer for the Mac instead using Doug’s xLib6000. The key requirement was for it to be easy to use and easy to configure.

Note: If you are interested in doing some app development yourself take a look at Doug’s xLib6000 which is the SmartSDR API for the Mac and his xSDR6000 which is a reference implementation of SmartSDR on the Mac using Metal instead of OpenGL.

Operation

Operation is quite simple. Make sure the DAX button on the SmartSDR P/CW panel is on or in the case of dogparkSDR select TX DAX in Preferences -> Radio -> TX DAX .

Click the button you want or on the keyboard use ⌘1…⌘0 for buttons 1 – 10 (if the SDR Voice Keyer has focus). The radio will be keyed and the audio transmitted. The Stop button or Esc will immediately stop any current transmission. You can adjust the Transmit Gain if necessary using the slider.

If you want to be reminded when to send your ID, check the ID Timer checkbox and a green flashing graphic will appear in front of the Send button. Click the Send button (or ⌘S) and your ID file will be sent.

Touch bar support is included if you have one of the newer MacBook Pro’s with a Touch Bar.

Requirements

Mac OS 10.12 or higher (Mac 10.14 Mojave Compatible)

SmartSDR 2.xx

dogParkSDR 1.xx

Audio File Requirements

Audio files may be MP3, AIFF, WAV and AAC. Using a WAV file will give you the best quality

The file should be recorded mono at a 24Khz sample rate but others that are a multiple of 24khz such as 48Khz and 96Khz will be resampled as necessary

— Set as 32 bit Float if there is a choice

Note: Other sample rates such as 44100 should work but may have some issues. Stereo should also work but the app is optimized for 24Khz mono as that is what he Flex 6xxx radios require.

Installation

Double click on the SDR VoiceKeyer.dmg file you downloaded and drag the app to your applications folder. The manual for the application may be dragged or copy and pasted to wherever you desire.

Configuration

When you first run the program the radio selector will be displayed and you can select the radio to connect to.

Select the radio you want and click Set as Default and then Connect. You will always automatically connect to the default radio when the program is started. To change the default radio just go into preferences and set a different radio as default.

The next step is to go to the menu for SDR Voice Keyer —> Preferences. The preferences pane will be displayed and you can select the audio files you want to transmit. You can add a label for the button or the app will use the file name as the label. The label can be as long as you want but only the first 10 to 15 characters will show depending on your use of upper or lower case letters.

Click on the number button and a finder file selection dialog will appear where you can select the audio file you want. Once you have populated the fields you want Close the dialog and you are ready to go. At the bottom you can select a file just for ID purposes and how often you want to be reminded. A green square will blink on the main program screen when the time has elapsed.

Recording Audio Files

While you can use many programs to create audio files I find the best way is to use Audacity, a free audio app for the Mac. It’s a little intimidating at first but allows you to trim empty space at the beginning and end of your files. When you first launch Audacity it should look like the image on the left. Down at the bottom in Project Rate type in 24000 if necessary. When you click the record button the image should look like the one on the right.

After you have made a recording you just highlight the portion you want trimmed and hit the delete key on the Mac to trim off any dead space at the beginning and end.

Next go the menu and select File -> Export -> Export as WAV

Give the file a name and select WAV (Microsoft) 32-bit float PCM then save the file.

I hope the SDR Voice Keyer is useful to you. Please leave a comment if you like the program or have any problems or want to see additional functionality added. You can also send an email to support (at) w6op (dot) com. Please subscribe to W6OP to be notified when updates are available.

]]>https://w6op.com/2019/sdr-voice-keyer-for-mac/feed/5796Getting ready for VK0EK – Heard Islandhttps://w6op.com/2016/vk0ek-heard-island/
Wed, 03 Feb 2016 18:59:32 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=650This is a busy DX year. Lots of ATNOs to be had. For me it has been VP8STI and VP8SGI, I had already worked Palmyra back in 2005. The next ATNO for me will be VK0EK Heard Island. The VP8s have been difficult and I expect VK0EK to be even more difficult. I managed one 40 meter QSO with VP8STI and a 30 meter QSO with VP8SGI.

Last night I was trying to work VP8SGI on 20 meters CW. The QSB was really bad and there were a couple of times I thought he may have come back to me but he was very week. Then finally I was sure I had him, I sent 5NN TU and then… some idiot decided to transmit right on top of VP8SGI. By the time the LID had finished he was working another call. So what to do, keep calling and hope I got through again or wait until the log is uploaded in a day or so.

If they were using DXA as VK0EK will be I would have known within a minute or two that I was in the log. Then I could have felt great or started trying again. You can see a demo of DXA or read a more detailed article about DXA.

]]>650Quest for FT5ZMhttps://w6op.com/2014/quest-for-ft5zm/
https://w6op.com/2014/quest-for-ft5zm/#respondSun, 26 Jan 2014 17:08:53 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=542New DX on the air today. Amsterdam Island, FT5ZM showed up on the air this morning.

I had stayed up late last night trying to work some new ones during the CQ WW 160 meter contest. I only have a short vertical for 160 so it’s tough and I have to maximize the contests. Overall I did ok, three new ones, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Korea.

Anyway, I got up a little late but did work Korea on 160 and I could see the FT5ZM guys had finally gotten on the air. I guess it was pretty tough setting up, 50 trips from the boat and then a tough hike to one of the camps. I saw they were working the US west coast on 40 meters and saying NA so I felt I might have a chance. This was at 1514 UTC which is a good time for 40 meters here. The sun is up a little but it is much higher to the east and the west coast is about the only area that has propagation. That really lightens up the pileups.

I fired up the amp and started calling with my Flex 5000 into my Steppir vertical. After about 15 minutes of calling I managed to break through and got in the log. Next I moved to 30 meters but they were pretty weak and there were both the US and EU in the pileup. It can be pretty tough on 30 meters plus you can only run 200 watts here. The signal had a lot of QSB so I went and took a shower. When I returned they had a great signal and apparently the EU thought so too. It is often that way on 30 meters, we will hear a station strong but so will the EU and you get huge pileups. Since there were very few Americans getting through I gave up on 30 for now.

I moved around to the other bands the clusters showed them on but none had strong enough signals to work them on. I guess I’ll just keep checking back and I’ll update this when I have a little more progress to talk about.

Tue. January 28: Still trying to get FT5ZM on another band. I spent about an hour or so trying on 20 meters yesterday on phone and cw, pretty much until they lost propagation here. I also tried on 17 and 15 meters but really couldn’t hear them well enough. This morning I spent quite a bit of time on 20 meters cw again with no luck.

Wed. January 29: They came up on 160 meters today but I only heard them for about a minute and really week. Hopefully propagation will be better tomorrow. I did manage to work them on 30 meters this morning after about an hour of calling, though. In theory, we should all be equal on 30 meters since you are limited to 200 watts PEP. However, the guys with the multi element yagis have a lot more ERP. I couldn’t really hear them on any other bands today.

Sunday. February 02: I haven’t been able to make any more QSOs with FT5ZM. I try each evening on 20 meters but can’t break through the pileups. In the mornings I haven’t been able to hear them at all on 160 meters and while I keep trying I can’t seem to break through on 80 meters other. I may have gotten them on 80 this morning but just as he would be coming back with a confirmation some idiot jammer started on his calling frequency. I just don’t know what is wrong with these people, are they frustrated they can’t get through so hey don’t want anyone else too or are they just a**^&#@%^#. Of course, if expeditions would use DXA for real time updates I would have known if I was in the log. I’ll try again tonight on 20 meters and in the morning on 80 meters again. The only problem is I see they have started RTTY already. My feelings are the expeditions start RTTY too soon. Just as the pileups thin out so us little guys can start getting through the pileups they start RTTY and create the big pileups again.

Tuesday. February 04: I did work FT5ZM on 80 meters on Sunday, I show up in Club Log. Today I managed to work them on 20 Meters. After trying so hard on CW I finally work them on SSB. And in the General Class part of the band. A little tougher then as there are more people in the pileup than when they are in the Extra Class section. Nice of them to make the effort to give everyone a chance at a QSO, not just the Extras. DXing was the primary reason I upgraded, a lot of DX stations don’t leave the Extra Class portion of the bands.

I was able to hear FT5ZM on 160 meters this morning but wasn’t able to work them.

Thursday. February 13: Final update. I managed to work FT5ZM on four bands, 20, 30, 40 and 80 meters. I rarely heard them on 17 or 15 meters and didn’t hear them at all on higher frequencies and barely on 160 meters. A little disappointed I couldn’t get them on 160 but certainly happy I was able to work them on some bands at least.

]]>https://w6op.com/2014/quest-for-ft5zm/feed/0542Recent DX Activityhttps://w6op.com/2013/recent-dx-activity/
https://w6op.com/2013/recent-dx-activity/#respondSat, 23 Nov 2013 03:04:35 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=526It has been pretty busy lately, Wake Island, Banaba Island, American Samoa, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Lakshadweep and more. This really kept me busy, especially since I was doing the DXA site for T33A at the same time. Unfortunately they pulled the plug on DXA for T33A because of network issues on the island. That did give me more time for other DX, though.

Here on the west coast K9W, Wake Island, was pretty easy. I worked them on all HF bands and even managed a QSO on 160 meters. The toughest band for me was 20 meters for some reason.

T33A was a little harder but I managed all HF bands except 160 meters. I think their antenna was a little compromised. The original 160 vertical broke and I am not sure their inverted V was pointing in my direction. I heard them a couple of times at greyline but not well enough to work them.

W8A in American Samoa isn’t too hard but again no 160 meters yet, though i did work E51NOU on 160 meters. Already have that confirmed in LOTW.

XZ1J in Myanmar was interesting. I worked them when they first started on 20 meters, I must have gotten in before the pileup started to get too heavy. After that is has been quite difficult. I finally did get them on 30 meters, though. This brings my 30 meter total to 99 with 87 confirmed.

I have heard Lakshadweep and Bangladesh but not well enough to work them. Same for South Sudan and several other African expeditions. I was able to work 3DA0ET in Swaziland on 15 meters.

XR0ZR, Juan Fernandez, I managed to work on several bands. Just could not get them on 80 or 160, however. One problem with 80 meters is that by the time the CW pileups thin out enough for me to get through they switch to SSB which starts the pileups all over again.

I have also picked up more band slots, 5J0R, PJ6/N7QT, J88HL, XV1X, YJ0ZS, JD1BON, TX5RV, XR0YY, OA4/N7CW and CT9/DK7YY. Oh, and MJ0AWR for an ATNO. It has been a busy and fun November so far.

]]>https://w6op.com/2013/recent-dx-activity/feed/0526T33A Banaba Island Updatehttps://w6op.com/2013/t33a-banaba-island-update/
https://w6op.com/2013/t33a-banaba-island-update/#respondThu, 07 Nov 2013 16:44:37 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=523T33A has only been active a couple of days and I haven’t had much time to work them yet. Interestingly, I worked them on 10 meters the first day they were on. Quite easily too. Usually the “Big Guns” are squeezing me out of the pileups, got lucky, maybe they were asleep. Then this morning I worked them on 30 meters after trying for quite awhile.

Unfortunately they pulled the plug on my DXA program for showing real time QSOs. I put a lot of hours into it so I am pretty disappointed. They were having multiple problems with their networks. There are two separate station setups, one CW and the other SSB. They are located quite a ways apart and each has a separate local area network. Initially they had problems getting the satellite links working, they never did get the SSB one working.

They were also having problems getting the N1MM logging program on each PC to synchronize with each other. Rather than troubleshooting the problems the dxpedition leader just started disconnecting things until it worked and then did not want to reconnect to find out where the problem lay. That pretty well shutdown DXA since the web site isn’t getting updates anymore.

As I said I am quite disappointed but I’ll continue to try to get them on more bands as the dxpedition continues. We had done a lot of testing and had everything working but as often happens when you get in a real world situation things can change.

]]>https://w6op.com/2013/t33a-banaba-island-update/feed/0523T33A Banaba Island & DXA – Get Ready for November 2013https://w6op.com/2013/t33a-banaba-island-dxa-get-ready-for-november-2013/
https://w6op.com/2013/t33a-banaba-island-dxa-get-ready-for-november-2013/#respondWed, 24 Jul 2013 17:56:50 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=463This November a dxpedition with nineteen operators will be going to Banaba Island. They plan on using the DXA Real Time QSO web site to display who they are working. If you aren’t familiar with DXA I have a short article on it, if you want to see a demo you can go to the T33A DXA web site for a look. Until the dxpedition is active the web site will be in simulation mode and may or may not be updating. It all depends on what I have going at the time. Sometimes I am doing development or testing and shut it down for awhile.
]]>https://w6op.com/2013/t33a-banaba-island-dxa-get-ready-for-november-2013/feed/0463TX5K Clipperton Islandhttps://w6op.com/2013/tx5k-clipperton-island/
https://w6op.com/2013/tx5k-clipperton-island/#respondFri, 01 Mar 2013 15:26:13 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=410Well we are all anxiously awaiting TX5K to get on the air. The last update was they had landed everyone on the island and had some tents up. They also had the generators installed. I expected to see them on the air this morning but I guess we will have to wait a little longer.

I wrote the software to upload QSOs on a minute by minute basis so I really want to see how it works. I also wrote a lot of the code behind the DXA2 website that will display your QSOs as you make them, well almost, there will be a one to two minute delay before they are displayed. However, that is quick enough so you will see if they really worked you or you need to try again.

If you have any comments about the DXA website please leave them here. Improvements, criticism (be nice), enhancements you would like to see.

You can keep up with their progress at the TX5K website and the TX5K blog.

73,
Pete W6OP

]]>https://w6op.com/2013/tx5k-clipperton-island/feed/0410Twenty Meter Phased Verticalshttps://w6op.com/2012/twenty-meter-phased-verticals/
https://w6op.com/2012/twenty-meter-phased-verticals/#commentsFri, 21 Dec 2012 00:22:06 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=359Here is a slideshow of my 20 meter phased verticals. The slideshow is a little slow to start so be patient after hitting the start button.

The slideshow widget is old and has quit working so I will just show a gallery of the pictures.

All of my antennas are made to be quickly and easily taken down. I can take take everything down including my Steppir BigIR in about ten minutes. I do it by having PVC or metal pipe in the ground with threaded connectors. PVC pipe is used for all of the small antennas and metal for the bigger ones. The ground is soft here without big rocks so I can pound in a 24 inch long PVC or metal pipe easily. This really works out well for having a BBQ or party, especially with kids and dogs around. It also makes it easy to mow the lawn though I usually just mow around them. I use LMR400 coax which is pretty stiff so I can just go over it with the mower. The radials are all buried in the grass, I just use 22 or 24 gauge insulated wire and tack them to the grass in the spring and shortly the grass has completely covered them.

The matching circuit at the base of each vertical is a split capacitor network designed by Lee Barrett K7NM and called a C-Match. Lee wrote a book about the C-Match and how to calculate the capacitance needed and the length of the elements, very interesting reading. Basically the elements are cut long so they are inductive and the capacitance both matches the impedance and ensures equal poet goes to each element. Lee’s book also comes with a CD with spreadsheets on it do do a lot of the calculations.

The coax to each antenna is equal in length and I have built a switching network to connect in a 90 degree phasing line to direct the antenna east or west. It works pretty well and the gain from a phased array often makes the difference between not copying a DX station and making the QSO.

]]>https://w6op.com/2012/twenty-meter-phased-verticals/feed/1359Flex-Radio 3000 – Now 5000https://w6op.com/2012/my-flex-radio-3000/
https://w6op.com/2012/my-flex-radio-3000/#commentsSun, 02 Dec 2012 23:01:08 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=199I recently upgraded to a Flex 5000 from the 3000. I wanted the second receiver. Anyway, couldn’t have been easier since I had all my settings documented here. I used these as the starting point and everything works great. I have updated the configuration article keeping the Flex 3000 settings and adding the Flex 5000 settings.

When you get a new radio there are always some accessories or add ons you need to really get everything working. With a Software Defined Radio (SDR) like the Flex 3000 or Flex 5000 it is the same only some of those add ons are software instead of hardware. I have had a Flex 3000 for a year or so but I work from home as a programmer and have been sharing my development PC with the Flex, not the best situation. While the PC is powerful enough by itself it does run out of power when I have all of my development programs plus the Flex 3000 working. Also, only having two monitors I run out of screen real estate between the radio and my work. (jump to configuration details)

Recently I decided to get a new PC that would be dedicated to the Flex 3000 when I want to use the radio. I wanted something very small so I bought an Apple Mac Mini with the core i7 processor, 8 GB of memory and a 1 TB Fusion drive. This is more than enough to run the Flex plus I now have an extremely small and quiet and cool running PC at 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches high. It also has built in FireWire so I wouldn’t have worry about add on cards. I just don’t understand why a Windows PC manufacture can’t build a small quiet PC with decent processing power and memory.

After I got the Mac OS X up and running, a very simple proposition, one small update and no reboots, I went into the Bootcamp Assistant and created a Windows partition and installed Microsoft Windows 7 from a flash drive. After that I had to download almost 1 GB of updates for Windows and reboot several times. Once Windows was finally running it couldn’t be easier, just select which OS to boot up into. Right now I am in the Mac OS writing this article in Pages and when I am ready to run the radio I’ll boot into Windows and be ready to go.

Since I was essentially starting from scratch with a new PC I decided to spend some time installing just what I needed and documenting my settings. I tried to be logical about how I configured things but I am sure some will have different ideas and I would appreciate any comments.

While Power SDR will get the radio going you will need several more programs to get the most from it. This list is what I am currently using along with Power SDR:

DDUtil – Steve Nance K5FR. This is the traffic cop of the system. DDUtil routes CAT commands, antenna and rotor commands and much more. Basically, you use DDUtil because the Flex only has one serial CAT port and you will have a lot of accessories that want to talk to the radio at the same time. Route everything through DDUtil and let the program handle all the routing and congestion problems.

VSP Manager – Also by K5FR, Stve Nance. Everthing wants a com port to communicate with the radio so VSP Manager creates virtual come ports. These can then be managed by DDUtil to prevent conflicts.

VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) – Eugene Muzychenko. VAC creates virtual audio channels or cables for routing the in and out audio to peripherals. It also acts as a mixer so you can have multiple input or output streams.

K9DUR Voice Keyer – Ray Andrews, K9DUR. I’m surprised Flex Radio hasn’t built Ray’s program into PSDR yet but you need a voice memory keyer if you DX or Contest work.

HRD Logbook – I use the logbook from Ham Radio Deluxe but HRD itself isn’t needed with a Flex. The 5.xx versions are still free.

DM780 – This is the digital modes program from HRD and I am used to it so I still use it. You need to install HRD to get it but you will never launch HRD.

MiniDeluxe – David McKenzie, K1FSY. HRD Logbook and DM780 still need to communicate with the Flex so we use MiniDeluxe, a light weight replacement for HRD.

CWGet – My CW decoding program. I can pick out my call at up to about 40 wpm but CWGet gives me a little insurance. Plus I can be sure I hear the DX correctly if he says EU only or QSY or goes QRT.

CWType – While you can use the CWX program built into PSDR, CWType offers some other useful features.

CW Skimmer – I have added CW Skimmer to my suite of programs so my article on the Flex configuration has been updated. I have the second receiver in my Flex 5000 so I had to add two new Virtual Audio Cables in VAC. This had some minor effects on other programs. CWGet had to be reconfigured back to use the original virtual cables as it picked up the new ones for some reason. I also had to configure the VAC2 tab in the Flex 5000 configuration.

It was a little confusing at first but It did not take too long to get it all working. I am still using the trial version of CW Skimmer, waiting for a contest or maybe a bigger dxpedition with strong enough signals here to see what it will do for me. If I find it useful, I’ll buy it of course.

There will be more later I am sure. You can read about my configuration details if you are interested. I tend to keep my software up to date so the versions will change as time goes by and I’ll try to keep this post updated as well.

]]>https://w6op.com/2012/my-flex-radio-3000/feed/2199A Good Week for DXhttps://w6op.com/2012/a-good-week-for-dx/
https://w6op.com/2012/a-good-week-for-dx/#respondFri, 26 Oct 2012 14:22:28 +0000http://w6op.com/?p=189This has been an excellent week for DX. Ten and Twelve meters have had good propagation and I worked quite a few new countries. While I have my 5BDXCC I am now trying for 6, 7, 8 and so on. I have over 100 countries on 17 meters (82 confirmed) but I was short, only 95 countries (63 confirmed) on 12 meters so I started paying more attention. I was able to work 22 new countries on 12 starting last Saturday through yesterday. I was quite happy with the countries I worked, too. Sable Island, Luxembourg, Guernsey, Lithuania and Nigeria among others. Quite a god mix. I also picked up Sable Island on 10 meters and 15 meters.

Now I need to start sending out some cards and getting confirmations so I can get 7BDXCC. I also need to start working 30 meters more and I hope this is a good year for 160 Meters, last year was terrible.

Hopefully I will pick up some more new ones in the CQWW SSB contest this weekend and get some LoTW confirmations, too.